


Stars of Midwinter

by Tethys_resort



Category: The Lord of the Rings - All Media Types, The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Candles, Comfort, Cute, F/M, Fluff, Food, Found Family, Gen, Gift Giving, Holiday Traditions, Kidnap Dads, M/M, Memories, Midwinter, Stars
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-24
Updated: 2020-12-24
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:47:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28291860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tethys_resort/pseuds/Tethys_resort
Summary: Midwinter.  And incredibly, terrifyingly sweet fluff.
Relationships: Celebrían/Elrond Peredhel, Elrond Peredhel & Elros Tar-Minyatur & Maedhros | Maitimo, Erestor/Glorfindel (Tolkien)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 59





	Stars of Midwinter

**Author's Note:**

> Warnings: long lost body parts (honestly, its Maedhros’ hand…)

Celebrian was singing and Erestor stopped to listen, eventually tapping on Glorfindel’s mind where he sat at his desk finishing up some last paperwork before the holiday started. 

_“That’s an old Vanya Midwinter song, Galadriel must have taught it to her.”_ Glorfindel’s mind voice had a smile. _“She is happy”_

Erestor smiled at his armload of decorations. _“I was worried… This being her first Midwinter without her parents.”_ Elrond had ordered him to make sure the Hall of Fire was ready with the stars, lots of blankets and food and the all-important candles for midnight. He had chosen to do the job himself: a reward for the holiday. 

_“But not her first Midwinter here. And this is her first Midwinter married to Elrond.”_ Glorfindel sent a memory of them over breakfast. Elrond had carefully added butter and honey to toast and cut it into a heart shape before nudging it onto Celebrian’s plate. She had kissed him on the cheek and fed him a bite of her eggs. _“I think we’re going to have to put up with a lot of over-romantic sappiness this time around.”_ The words were a little sour but the mind voice was just short of giggles. _“We weren’t like that, were we?”_

_“No. Definitely not. I hope not.”_ Erestor could tell that Glorfindel was in audible giggles now as he stared at his desk. 

Glorfindel stared through Erestor’s eyes at the current box. _“One question that I have meant to ask every year for the last two thousand or so: why stars for Midwinter?”_

Erestor laughed out loud. _“Well, you can blame that on Lord Maedhros….”_

***

Erestor wrinkled his nose at the fireplace as one brick in the hearth wall wiggled. He would have to go and tell the maintenance team about it before cleaning the rest of the fireplaces. After this one, he only had fifteen more. He was keeping count, even though his unit leader’s order was “shovel, clean and polish every hearth in the fortress”. The kitchen hearths and oven should really have counted as two each. 

But mentioning that would probably earn him yet another stupid cleaning project for failure to keep his mouth shut. 

He was trying to decide if the hearth was safe to relight when Elros and Elrond peered around the corner of the big double doors. 

They spotted Lord Maedhros and held a tiny conversation of gesture and whisper. The elf lord had borrowed a desk in the library for the afternoon and was in the middle of some project. The Twins had gotten more comfortable with Lord Maedhros since Erestor’s tree accident a couple of weeks ago. But this time they seemed worried about disturbing him. 

And it was obvious they had a question. 

They stared at Lord Maedhros, watching carefully as he dipped his quill, tapped off the excess and continued the paragraph. Lord Maedhros was obviously watching in fascination as well, hiding his stare under the cover of paperwork. 

He carefully ignored them as they tiptoed up, but Erestor could tell that most of his attention was focused on the elflings standing in front of the desk. 

Finally Elrond very timidly asked, “My Lord?”

“Maedhros. Or I’ll have to call you two ‘My Lord’ as well.” That silenced Elrond for a moment as he contemplated the prospect. 

“I can’t call you that.” Elrond stared at Lord Maedhros. “Ma-, um. What else can we call you? Can we call you Ada, like Ada Maglor?”

Completely derailed, Lord Maedhros stared at the elflings with his mouth open. After several attempts, he said, “Ada and Ada might be confusing. Maybe Adar? If you like?”

“Adar? We had a question.” 

Lord Maedhros had a sudden brilliantly bright smile. “Of course, my sons. Would you like to come sit on my lap while you ask? Or pull up some chairs so you don’t have to stand there like a pair of petitioners?”

Elros scuttled around the end of the desk and climbed directly into Lord Maedhros’ lap. He thudded his head back into his chest, then folded backward over the arm that Lord Maedhros had used to hastily balance him. From his halfway upside down position he called, “Come on, this is nice.”

Elrond walked around the desk and Lord Maedhros used the other arm to pull him onto the other knee, hand wrapping around his middle for balance as both elflings snuggled into his chest in a hug. 

The scribes stared and Lord Maedhros himself looked shocked but pleased. He whispered to the pair of heads buried in his sweater, “Now my sons, what was this urgent question you bring to me?”

Elros and Elrond both started to speak at once, then looked at each other and came to a silent consensus. Elros said, “We wanted to know how Lady Uinen would find us here.”

“Lady Uinen?” Lord Maedhros stared blankly, obviously uncertain of how to ask the question without offending. 

Elrond nodded and Elros continued. “Because Lady Uinen brings good elflings gifts over the waves.”

“Lord Cirdan told us that you give gifts at Midwinter and thank Lady Uinen for calming the storms so everyone can come home.”

Maedhros looked completely lost, but managed. “Lady Uinen, huh? Um, well. We are a bit far from the Sea I suppose…” There was a long pause as Maedhros visibly wracked his brains. “Ilmare. Do you know Lady Ilmare?”

The Twins stared at Maedhros and he continued with a hopeful smile. “Lady Ilmare’s normal job is to help Lady Varda keep the stars dancing in their order. But I think on Midwinter we can all give her thanks and ask her to tell Lady Uinen about it when she dances that direction.”

The staring continued and Lord Maedhros began to visibly sweat. “Would that work? We’ll even hang stars up with everyone’s name?”

Elrond nodded and nudged Elros who blinked back at Elrond and then nodded vigorously. 

“Oh good.” 

Lord Maedhros sighed and relaxed slightly as the next question came up. Elrond said, “And, um. We were wondering why you don’t have your hand.”

The light of mischief rose in Lord Maedhros’ eyes as he blinked innocently down at the elflings. “My hand? I have my hand?” He waggled his fingers.

“Nooooo. The other hand.” Elros pointed. 

They all looked at the stump at the end of the arm being used to balance Elros. “Wow, its missing again.” Lord Maedhros looked at it dispassionately but with a smile at the corners of his mouth, “I must have left it somewhere on accident. Next it’ll be my head.”

Elros and Elrond stared up at Lord Maedhros with wide eyes. Finally Elrond said in tones of deepest concern, “You should be careful. That would be bad.”

Elros said, “Please don’t let your head get lost.”

Lord Maedhros hugged them closer. “My hand was a bad accident a very, very long time ago, my little stars. The fake one is in my office. My head will not get away as easily.” 

“Oh, like Luyayar. He told us Osse had borrowed his leg. But really the trawl net got caught.” 

Elrond added, “Or, Lord Galdor. He told us Lord Namo was holding his eye for later.” Erestor thought of the carnage they had left and desperately hoped that neither elf was dead in Sirion. 

Lord Maedhros seemed to have the same thought, and trying to lighten the subject said, “Now, we have candles for midnight, but what do you think is the proper food to eat for Midwinter?”

Elros and Elrond spoke together in their eagerness to name their favorites.

Lord Maedhros stared at them, digesting the sudden requests. Finally he ventured, “Fruit filled cake should be easy enough. And it wouldn’t be Midwinter without mashed potato. But herring casserole… I bet Cook can make it. Is trout or river sturgeon an acceptable substitute?”

***

Glorfindel giggled again. _“That also explains the smoked trout pie that appears each Midwinter dinner.”_

There was a scrape and thud on Glorfindel’s end of the bond as the Guard scribe stood up with a glower and bowed. “I am taking lunch now,” she announced before marching out of the office muttering about “Sappy idiots who have been married long enough to be less sappy by now.”

They both watched her go through Glorfindel’s eyes, and then started laughing. 

Erestor stared into his box. _“Love, I found our stars. I’ll hang them together in our usual spot.”_ He smiled at the box. _“Elrond asked me to find his and Celebrian’s so they can hang them together too.”_


End file.
